That Belgium was getting a hellish striker for the future was clear back in November 2010 when Romelu Lukaku defeated Russia (2:0) with two goals in a friendly match held in Voronezh.
Those were his first goals in the national team jersey, and to this day he has hit the nets of rivals Belgium a total of 85 times and is by far the best scorer in that country, but also the sixth best in history when it comes to goals for the national team - ahead of him are only Sunil Chhetri, Lionel Messi, But Dai i Cristiano Ronaldo.
And all of that may be somewhat forgotten because of the curse that follows this striker at the last two major competitions - the 2022 World Cup and this year's European Championship.
Until the mentioned tournaments, the strong guy from Antwerp had five goals from the European and six from the world championships, while he was scoreless in Qatar, and it was the same after two rounds of the championship in Germany.
I will never accept that kind of offside
Lukaku is followed by a minor, so even today his failures against Croatia in Al Rayyan are recounted, because of which Belgium did not even pass the group stage of the World Cup.
It's an even more surreal story this summer in Germany, as Lukaku is playing great, even scoring goals, but each time they've been disallowed by VAR. Two against Slovakia in the first round and one due to a "millimeter offside" in the duel with Romania.
- As a striker, I will never accept that kind of offside... We always talk about the striker's advantage, and then millimeters are measured - he said Jan Wright, former Arsenal striker, for ITV.
He plays a fantastic tournament
Even without the disallowed goals and a few missed chances, there is little to complain about in Lukaku's play during the first two matches at the Euros - against Romania he made a brilliant save and set up a goal Yuri Tillemans, and was also a constant temptation for Radu Dragušin and other Romanians in defense.
- He played a fantastic match, he is not one of those selfish strikers. After all, he was instrumental in our first goal. From my point of view - Romelu is playing a fantastic tournament - the captain's message was clear Kevin de Bruyne after the victory over the Romanians (2:0).
Their defensive teammate thinks the same way Arthur Teat.
- It's probably very painful for a striker when your goal is disallowed because of a millimeter, but I know that Romelu is positive and that it doesn't affect him much. He is very important for us, he creates a lot of opportunities, opens up a lot of space and if he continues like this, I am sure that he will score a lot of goals by the end of the tournament - emphasized Teat.
Russia 2018 and Euro 2020 best shows
In the place where he scored his first goals for the national team, Lukaku also played in one of the two best major competitions - at the World Cup in Russia, when Belgium reached the semi-finals, "Big Rom" hit the net four times, so he had a better performance throughout the tournament. of him had only Harry Kane. True, he was the scorer in only two matches, as he scored two goals each against weak Panama and Tunisia.
Two years later at the European Championship, he had an identical performance, and Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick with five hits each. At the tournament, which was played throughout the continent, he shook the net of Russia twice, and once each of Finland and Italy.
In addition to all that, he also had a great announcement of Euro 2024, since he was the best scorer of the qualifications with 14 goals.
In Germany, he is still waiting for his goal to be recognized, and it is unusual that VAR canceled three of his goals, while only three players scored more than one goal in the entire tournament. And only two at a time - Jamal Musiala, George Mikautadze i Ivan Šranc.
Bonus video:
